After Attack, Union Official Says Death Row Inmates Should Get Same Treatment As Other Prisoners

DEATH ROW

April 02, 2010|By JON LENDER

Death row inmates have greater privileges than other convicts in the Connecticut prison system — and Monday's alleged assault on guards by convicted killer Daniel Webb shows why that must stop, a correction officers union official said Thursday.

However, the Department of Correction denied that and said it is reviewing procedures after Monday's incident for the safety of the prison staff.

The memory of the assault was still fresh Thursday among prison guards and their union representatives as Catherine Osten, president of the correction supervisors' union, spoke with reporters at the state Capitol.

She said the personal possessions of inmates on death row at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers are not subjected to as much scrutiny as those of other prisoners.

Because of that, Webb was found to have a spray bottle filled with urine and hot sauce in his cell after Monday's incident, Osten said, adding, "he can buy hot sauce through [the] commissary, and he was going to use that on staff as they walked by his cell — and I'm disgusted with that, quite frankly."

The lack of scrutiny isn't in the rules, but that's how it works in practice, she said.

Osten called for the correction department to limit what death row inmates can have in their cells, and to always keep them in restraints — handcuffs, primarily — when they are outside their cells.

Osten spoke a day after a state legislator said that a prison captain assaulted by Webb Monday had been denied a request to shackle Webb before moving him within the unit. The captain's request to handcuff Webb was denied even though prison authorities had been told by a psychologist that Webb had "aggressive focus on the captain," state Rep. Karen Jarmoc, D-Enfield, said Wednesday after the union contacted her. Jarmoc wants a legislative hearing on the incident.

Correction department officials have confirmed some details of the attack, but have not identified Webb. He is awaiting execution for the 1989 murder of bank executive Diane Gellenbeck in Hartford. A prison official said that an inmate "sucker-punched" the captain in the face. Webb had threatened the captain before and had been upset over what he and other death row inmates believe is an unfair lack of privileges, Jarmoc said.

"They wouldn't be on death row unless they had a propensity toward violence," Osten said. "To think that they are going to behave well when they are incarcerated is foolish. ... The department should ... institute the same rules [on death row as] for any other inmate ... and limit what they can have in their cells and ... institute a policy of restraining death row inmates."

Correction department spokesman Brian Garnett said that Northern is a "Level 5," maximum-security prison with a "very restrictive environment." Death row inmates fall under the "same intensive scrutiny" as any other inmate there, he said.

Acting Correction Commissioner Brian K. Murphy "is committed to the safety of our staff, and as a result has ordered a full-scale review of the policy and procedures that we utilize on death row," Garnett said. "Other than that I really can't comment," he said, citing an "ongoing criminal investigation regarding the assault."

Kevin Brace, one of four correction officers who helped the captain subdue Webb, stood near Osten with his right arm in a sling. He said Wednesday that Webb is "at least 6-foot-5 and weighs more than 300 pounds. I mean it took more than five of us to restrain him."

Brace, who is 6 feet 4, said Monday's incident "was chaos, and [a] melee and a big pile of staff trying to subdue and restrain inmate Webb. I just kind of jumped in the pile, and we were trying get him restrained. ... He was punching, he was kicking, thrashing around. After [he] was restrained, I was escorting him to another cell [with another guard] ... and he started going 'dead weight.' And he kept dropping his weight, and dropping his weight, and finally he dropped his weight and I lost my balance and got thrown into a metal door frame. That's how I injured my shoulder." Brace is on sick leave and receiving treatment.